Ranma, Tamuro, and Xian Pu appeared among the trash bags outside the front gate of the Tendo compound. The bags shredded as the three figures materialized. The lavender-haired Amazon brushed off some stray pieces of trash. “This has got to be one of the most disgusting ways of traveling I’ve ever known.”
“You get used to it.” Tamuro commented as he tried to clean himself off somewhat.
“That’s not important! I’ve got to check on Akane!” Ranma turned and leapt over the wall.
He landed in the yard and looked toward the dojo portion of the house. Half of the structure was destroyed and pieces were lying strewn all over the lawn. Ranma took off at a dead sprint toward the remains.
Xian Pu and Tamuro opened the front gates in time to see Ranma rushing toward the remaining half of the Tendo Dojo. They picked up the pace as they sprinted to join the martial artist.
They turned the corner to find him sifting through the wreckage. He was calling for Akane and Chiko the whole time he was digging through the debris. He finally stopped when he heard a low moan escape. He jumped to the other side of the dojo and threw a large chunk of wall aside.
There, lying among some of the broken substructure of the dojo, was a beaten and bloody Tendo Akane. Her arm was twisted at an unnatural angle, one of her legs was bleeding, and her left eye was swollen shut. Ranma gently lifted her head and rested it in his lap as he sat beside her.
The raven-haired girl blinked her good eye and weakly spoke, “R-Ranma?”
“I-It’s me Akane. Don’t try to talk. We’ll get some help for you.” He brushed some of her disheveled hair out of her eyes.
She shook her head, causing some pain to shoot through her neck. “N-No time. They…They got Chiko…I tried my best, but…but there was too many of them.”
“Was it Tarou?” Ranma asked with a cold voice.
“It was him…and a bunch of Musk.” She replied, her voice dropping close to a whisper.
“…” Ranma’s face hardened. His eyes became like blocks of ice and hit brow furrowed to a point. All the muscles in his body began to tense up.
“Ranma, I-It’s getting cold.” She tried her best to huddle herself into a ball.
“Shock is settling in.” Tamuro knelt at her side. “I’ve already called for an ambulance.”
Ranma shrugged out of his trench coat and laid it on Akane like a blanket. He tenderly put her head back on ground and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “You did your best. Rest now. I’ll get our son back.” He stood up and turned toward the East wall of the compound, the direction of the trade conference.
“Wait! I’ll come too!” Xian Pu strode up beside him and put her hand on his shoulder.
He picked up her hand and turned to face her. “You stay here and watch over Akane. I’m going to take care of Tarou once and for all.” He released her hand, and it dropped to her side.
“You’d better come back to me.” She crossed her arms and glared at him. “Don’t throw your life away because you’re angry.”
He turned away from her and started walking again. “I’ll be back…and you’ve never seen me really angry.” His aura leapt up about him and temporarily blinded Xian Pu. By the time her eyes cleared up, he was just a streaking blue light in the distance.
“You’d better come back, my beloved husband.” She whispered under her breath. She turned around and helped Tamuro tend to the fallen Tendo.
Ranma’s ire
built as he swiftly approached the convention center in downtown Tokyo, the
place of the Japanese-Chinese Trade
Conference.
The scene at the conference was
controlled chaos. Armed Musk warriors
in full battle garb covered all the entrances and exits. They were all armed with fully automatic
machine guns and a sword at their side.
In the main convention area Tarou walked among all the ambassadors,
officials, and staff. He had a cocky
smile on his face as he strode confidently in between them, his cloak flowing
behind him. He crossed over to where a
small boy was tied to one of the chairs.
The little five-year-old had a scowl on his face as he sat there
boiling. He knew he couldn’t do
anything, he had tried, but they took away his mallet. He just sat there staring daggers at Tarou.
“So what do you think of our little
party?” Tarou laughed at the little
boy. “You’ll have to remind me to thank
your father for making all of this possible.”
He tried to pat the small boy on the head, but jerk his hand away as
Chiko tried to bite his fingers off.
“So much of your parents in you.
We’ll get that out right now.”
He backhanded the kid hard enough to bounce his head off the chair. Chiko didn’t cry out or even grunt. He just continued staring daggers at the
taller Musk. Tarou knelt to his eye
level and smiled. “You’ll make a fine
addition to my gang. No fear and grim
determination, and if you have a tenth of your father’s ability, you’ll make a
great one.”
“What kind of man are you to pick on
such a small child?” One of the
Japanese officials asked.
The Musk leader stood and
turned. In a blur of motion, his
sidearm was up and one shot was fired.
The official’s left shoulder erupted in blood. “Future ruler of Japan and China. After all of you sign those papers, which I had retyped with a
few special changes of my own, I’ll rule the trade in and out of the two
countries thereby ruling them both.”
“Neither of our governments will
honor a treaty signed under duress!”
One of the Chinese officials yelled out.
Tarou walked over in front of him,
gun still in his hand. “Oh they
will. I’d tell you why, but I’ve
learned not to spill all the beans before everything is well in hand. Besides, you’re not going to die here, so
I’m not going to tell any of my plans.”
He turned to address the whole gathering. “That’s right! All you
have to do is sign the agreement and you are all free to go about your
business! Just a little scrawl of your
handwriting on the page and you get to walk away from here.”
“What about the boy?” The injured Japanese official asked as his
aide was hastily trying to apply a wrap to the wounded shoulder.
“The boy is insurance from another
avenue of attack.” Tarou strode back
and managed to pat the boy on the head.
“You see I tried to kill his father the other night. I have no illusions that I actually
succeeded with such a small explosive, so the boy here is going to make him
think twice about stopping me.” Tarou
looked up as he sensed a massive power approaching. “In fact, here comes dear old daddy now.”
The doors to the conference room
blew open. They didn’t blow outward and
bang against the walls as much as they were shredded into slivers of steel as
they came open. A figure glowing with a
blue with red tinged aura stepped through the ruined door. Two of the Musk guards turned their weapons
at him. With a motion of his hands,
their weapons were sliced in half and they were blown off their feet. Both of them struck the floor and were
knocked out cold.
“PAPA!” The boy exclaimed loudly.
He had an enormous grin on his face.
He turned the smile toward Tarou.
“My papa’s going to kick your butt!”
Tarou smiled a sinister grin at the
boy. “We’ll see about that.” He reached down and lifted the kid up by the
scruff of his neck. “Hold it right
there, Saotome. You wouldn’t want
anything to happen to your boy, would you?”
“If you harm him…” Ranma let the statement hang as more red
began to mix into his aura. A small of
ball of Ki began to form in his right palm.
“Uhn, uh, uh.” Tarou chided as he drew his knife and held
it to the kid’s throat. “Stand down,
femboy, or your child becomes a head shorter.
I’d hate to have to kill a future partner with this much potential.”
Ranma stiffened. “What was that?”
A thin smile creased Tarou’s
lips. “Listen, RANMA,” He put extra
emphasis on the first name showing that he was serious by addressing him with
his given name. “You and I could rule
all these poor fools. You and you’re
son, who I’m sure could become as great a martial artist as yourself, could
join my little organization. Fame,
riches, and bitches, all you could ever handle.”
The JCIA agent raised his
eyebrow. “You’re organization? I could have sworn that I just heard Kodachi
talk about it being HER organization.”
He tried to inch forward again.
“Stay right there. You know how many compunctions I have about
hurting people.” Tarou lifted the boy’s
head with the blade of the knife, not drawing any blood.
“Yeah, none.” Ranma grumbled.
One of the Musk that Ranma had
knocked out had woken up and was trying to sneak up behind him. Ranma sensed him but allowed him to sneak a
ways. The warrior drew his sword, and,
at the sound, Ranma turned and launched a point blank vacuum blade into the
Musk’s chest, cutting him in two.
Ranma turned back around to face
Tarou. “Now you know how many
compunctions I have now that you’ve involved my son.” He eyed each of the warriors in the room in turn, daring them to
try something. Coming back to Tarou, he
asked, “By the way, how in the world did you get this many Musk warriors here
and to behave long enough to become an invasion unit?” He glanced briefly at the female officials.
“I’ll have you know that handpicked
each of these warriors.” He gestured
with his free hand. “I selected them
from the ones that had not bought into Herb’s ‘All Amazon’s Must Die’ shtick. They, like me, have decided that the world
is bigger than just our land and the Amazon’s.” He eyed the same female officials. “I also got them all laid, of course.”
“Of course.” Ranma nodded his head with an ‘I should have
known that’ look on his face. His face
returned to serious. “As far as your
offer goes, you can stuff it. I’ve
sworn to protect the innocent and the weak from any attack, including
invasion.”
Tarou sighed. “Pity.
I would have liked to have gone without killing you, such a waste of a
trained martial artist. Of course I’ll
have to kill your son here too. We
can’t have a vindictive child after us, now can we?”
Ranma seemed to twitch in
place. Tarou pulled his gun and fired a
burst at him. The bullets just passed
through Ranma as the Musk went flying toward the far wall. Ranma grabbed his son and jump straight up
as a hail of bullets destroyed the chair that his son had been tied to. They all looked and sensed around
frantically trying to find where the martial artist had gone.
The Jusenkyo cursed Musk stood back
up from his slumped position against the wall.
“Find them and kill them!” The
Other musk warriors rushed to carry out his command.
Meanwhile, a ways down the hallway,
Ranma was hiding his son away in a broom closet. “Stay here, Chiko. Don’t
open the door for anyone but me, got that?”
The boy nodded and grabbed a
convenient mop and gripped it like a sword.
“I’ll fight them just like you papa!”
His father shook his head. “No.
Maybe when you’re a little older.
For right now, just stay here.
Your mother wouldn’t like it very much if you got hurt,
understand?” The boy nodded his head. “Now stay put. Papa’s going to go lay the smack down on some bad people.”
“Go papa!” His son cheered him on.
Ranma smiled. “Now, don’t make a sound. Practice being calm and quiet like I taught
you.” He stepped back and gently shut
the door. “Now to take care of this
building’s rodent population.” He
turned and strode back toward the conference room.
As he walked, he encountered several
of the Musk warriors that were searching for him. The first one, which vaguely reminded Ranma of a rat, brought his
gun to bear and Ranma nimbly stepped aside and then closed the distance at an
angle quickly, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious. The next one that looked like he had an
ancestry of a hawk had his sword drawn and was charging Ranma with the sword
poised for an overhead slice. The
Japanese martial artist caught the blade between his hands and lifted the blade
up to leave an opening for a barrage of kicks into the Musk’s abdomen.
After wading through a few more Musk
warriors who were no more than a nuisance to him, Ranma burst back into the
main conference room. “Time to finish
this once and for all, Tarou.” He
dropped into a low stance and his expression hardened.
“Indeed it is, femboy.” He smirked and gestured to the remaining
Musk. “Kill the officials.”
Ranma’s eye widened as the Musk
brought their weapons to bear. Time
seemed to slow down for him as he went into action. He jumped forward and kicked the first one’s gun from his hand
and followed up with a blow to the neck to knock him out. On his way to the second, he was knocked
aside by Tarou. He rolled away from
Tarou and went to the next warrior, taking a hard shot to the ribs from Tarou
for his trouble. He managed to subdue
the next Musk before he could fire.
The warriors on the other side of
the room began opening fire, and screaming death followed. Ranma turned to jump, only to be tackled by
the other Jusenkyo victim. He elbowed
the Musk in the head and unleashed a Ki blast toward the other two
warriors. The blast went through one
and blew the wall out behind him. The
other Musk rolled away and came back to his feet, resuming fire. Ranma struggled with Tarou enough to throw a
vacuum blade at the other remaining warrior, cutting him in two.
The surviving officials made a mad
dash for the exit Ranma had made. The
martial artist turned to address Pantyhose Tarou. He dodged a few blows and unleashed an upper cut into Tarou’s
solar plexus, sending him flying up and across the room.
“Not bad, femboy, but not good
enough.” Tarou grabbed the flask from
under his cloak and poured it over himself, transforming into his cursed form.
Ranma stopped and considered the
transformation. Something was different
from what he remembered. He had the
head of a bull, the wings of a crane, an eel for a tail, octopus tentacles, and
the hair and size of a yeti. Suddenly
Ranma remembered that his legs had been more like a bull than a human
before. Now he had legs that were
articulated like a human, and he seemed to carry himself better than before.
“Prrreparrre to die Rrrranmaaa” The beast bellowed. It’s voice sounded like a cross between a
lion’s roar and a deep human voice.
“Whoa!” was all he got out before
the bull came charging for him. He
dodged aside and kneed the passing monster, having no effect.
The winged minotaur turned and
roared with laughter. “You’ll neverrr
defeat me!” His tentacles shot forward
in a flurry of blows.
Ranma manage to dodge them all and
jump out of range. “What’s the
deal? How can you talk?”
“Sprrring of drown man!” The massive wings on Tarou’s back came up
and began to flap, stirring the debris in the room.
The dust clouded Ranma’s
vision. He tried to blind fight Tarou,
but the monster had enough limbs to block all his moves and return twice as
many. The martial artist was starting
to take heavy damage.
“You’ve been a thorrrrn in my side
long enough, you trrrransgenderrrrr bitch!”
Tarou ranted. “Errrverrry plan I
made failed because of you and you’rrre loathsome masterrr.” He punched up and ruptured the line to the
emergency fire sprinklers.
The unnatural rain settled the
flying dust to reveal a still male Saotome.
He laughed as he saw the surprise on Tarou’s face. “What’s the matter Tarou? Surprised?
I know what you’re thinking, ‘oh shit he’s still male. Now I’ll never beat him.’”
“How did you do it? The sprrring doesn’t worrrrk!” The monster yelled.
Ranma smirk his cocky grin.
“The miracles of modern technology.
Something Kodachi would have told you about if you hadn’t betrayed
her. Of course she probably needed you
like that for a chance to defeat me.”
Tarou shook off his surprise and renewed his attack. Tentacles and fists flew at an amazing
pace. Ranma managed to elude the blows
and start his spiral. He reached the
center of the spiral and threw his fist upward. “Hiryu Shoten HA!!!”
The wind picked up and a whirlwind formed. The updraft pushed Tarou into and through the ceiling. Ranma leapt into the wind and let the air
current carry him into the air. He put
his hands in front of himself and powered up a Mouko Takabisha.
Tarou looked down in time to see Ranma flying up toward him with the
glowing ball of Ki in his hands. He
lifted his own hand and fired a jet of ink at Ranma, spattering him in the
face.
Ranma was blinded, but could still sense the other’s presence. He unleashed the Ki blast, but Tarou managed
to dodge enough to reduce the damage to a graze.
The winds died down and the pair dropped to the ground. Ranma winced as he cleared the ink from his
eyes. He looked up in time to see a
slightly singed Tarou charging at him.
“I’ll kill you. Then I’ll kill
that boy of yourrrs and the Amazon bitch and then I’ll take overrr this
miserrrable countrrry!” He threw a
punch that knocked Ranma off his feet and sailing into a nearby wall.
Ranma stood up and shook himself.
A red aura began to form about him.
He stood to his full height, and he suddenly looked like he hadn’t taken
any damage at all. “That IT!!!” His aura exploded outward, sending dust and
small rocks flying. “You’ll never get
to my son, or Xian Pu!!!” His voice
dropped as he seethed out his next sentence.
“You’ve made a grave mistake.”
“What’s that?” Tarou threw
another crushing punch.
Ranma aligned his body and caught the punch, sending the energy through
his body and into the ground where it did no harm. “You just got my full attention.
I’ve always held back on my opponents, but now you’ve proved that you
will not stop until one of us is dead.”
Tarou’s tentacles shot inward all at once. Ranma jumped back, flinging his arms up at an arc. He unleashed two Kijin Raishuu Dans that severed all the tentacles at once. Tarou yelled in pain and fired a double blast of ink from his hands. The Japanese martial artist faded from sight and the ink hit nothing.
“Behind you.”
The monster yelled in pain as a trail of devastating blows trailed up his back and broke his wings, rendering them useless. He jumped away and growled. “You may have taken away my extrrra limbs, I’m still morrrre powerrrrful than you!”
“There’s something you should know about that.” Ranma dropped into a narrow stance. “There’s a certain martial art that was invented by either an old man or a woman that has survived through the years because of one reason. It uses a stronger opponents strength against them.”
The monster roared and threw a haymaker at Ranma. He stepped aside and struck the outstretched arm, bringing Tarou’s balance forward and over his forward leg. Ranma stepped in and crouched down at the monster’s side. He lifted up and threw the minotaur into the ground. He then leapt up and came down, slamming his knee into the back of Tarou’s neck. The blow stunned the Musk long enough for Ranma to walk over to a water fountain.
He kicked at an arc and severed the top off the fountain. The water gushed upward and Ranma put his hands in the stream.
A dazed Tarou got back to his feet and looked around, trying to find where his nemesis had gone.
“Yo, ugly! Over here!”
Tarou turned around. At that moment Ranma flared his scorching Ki into the stream of water and pinched the flow on the pipe, sending a jet a of boiling water at the Musk.
The monster shifted back into a man, and Ranma leapt at him. Moving faster than Tarou could follow, the heir to the Anything Goes Martial Arts nailed him in the jaw and sent him flying. He bounced a couple times on his head before stopping. He had been knocked unconscious.
Police started coming out of the woodwork. They had been hiding to the side, thinking that they had better wait to try and apprehend either one of the combatants. They put the Musk in cuffs quickly and drug him back as far from the fountain as possible. When one tried to put the cuffs on Ranma, he reached into his pants and pulled out his JCIA badge. The cop just apologized and went back to securing the prisoner.
At that moment Tamuro and Yura appeared among the rubble of the conference center. Yura looked around with a frustrated look on her face. “You mean it’s already over! Gah! I hate it when I miss the action!”
Her husband patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Yura. There’ll be plenty of people to beat up later. Not all of the Musk were found.” She looked a little cheered at that thought.
“Where’s Akane and Shampoo?” Ranma asked as he walked toward them.
“The ambulance took Akane to the hospital and Shampoo stayed at her side. They stabilized her and I left to get Yura and get here as fast as we could. How’s your son?”
Ranma smiled. “Why don’t you ask him yourself? He’s right behind you.” His face got a playful-stern look on it. “Even though I told him to stay in the closet!”
Tamuro turned around. “Where?” He panned around with his eyes. “I don’t see him.”
“You can’t hide from me, Chiko. Come on out.” Ranma crossed his arms.
The boy materialized behind Tamuro’s right leg. He brought his fist to his mouth. “I just wanted to see the fight, papa. I sorry!”
“What the?” Tamuro started. “You’ve already trained him in your martial arts?”
Ranma scooped up his son and put him on his shoulder. “You’re never too young to start training. He’ll grow up to be just like his father.” He chuckled with pride.
“That’s if he grows up at all!” A shout came from Tarou. They all turned to him. “You and the boy will never be able to hide from the Triad and the Yakuza! The rest of your friends and family may be able to, but you two won’t! Your aura is too strong! The martial artists will be able to sense you wherever you go! You can hide and fight all you want, but you’ll have to sleep sometime, and when you do someone will be there to kill you and you’re child!” Tarou broke loose and made a dash toward the still spouting fountain.
Ranma turned and unleashed a vacuum blade with his free hand. The blade flew out and caught Tarou just inches from the water, severing his head from his body. The head rolled out and fell into the puddle at the base of the fountain, transforming once more into the cursed form. The police wondered how they were going to explain bringing a human body and a bull’s head to the coroner.
“He never learned when to shut up.” Ranma managed to bring his anger back in check. He turned back to Tamuro. “Which hospital did they take Akane to?”
“Tokyo General.” His superior answered. “Want me to take you there?”
The martial artist shook his head. “No. I’d rather not smell like garbage when visiting the hospital. Come on, Chiko. Let’s go see your mother.”
“Yay!” The boy cheered as his father ran and vaulted to the nearest rooftop. From there he hopped away toward the hospital.
Yura rolled her eyes. “And once again he leaves me with the cleanup!” She growled.
“Cut him some slack.” Tamuro put his arm around her waist. “The man’s had a rough day.”
She was still angry. “HE’S had a rough day! I lost my brand new desk!”
Her husband chuckled. “Don’t worry, dear. We’ll have the steel workers union make you a new one when headquarters are rebuilt.”
“You sure know how to sweet talk a woman, don’t you?” She smiled at him.
“Only you, dear. Only you.”
Xian Pu sat in the hospital room looking across at the sleeping form of Akane. The doctors had said she would make a full recovery after she had had enough time to rest. With all the healing techniques Ranma had taught her, she would probably be up and around in another week or so.
She heard a knock at the door. “Come in.” She put a hand on one of the asps in her outfit.
The door opened and Ranma stepped in with his son beside him holding his hand. “How is she?”
“The doctors say She’s fine. I figure she’ll be as good as new in a week or so.” Xian Pu relaxed and smiled at him.
Chiko bounced up to Akane’s bedside. “Momma! Wake up, momma!”
Ranma rushed forward and picked the boy up. “Momma needs her rest right now. You don’t need to bother her.”
“It’s all right.” A weak voice came from Akane. “I’m glad to see you safe and sound, Chiko.”
“I wasn’t worried one bit!” The boy proudly proclaimed. “I knew papa would be there to save me ‘cause he’s the strongest man in the world!”
“Not the strongest, son.” Ranma chided his son. “Just maybe the best martial artist.”
“Baka.” Both Akane and Xian Pu said at once, and then they shared a laugh.
“Let me hold Chiko.” Akane held her arms out.
Ranma placed the small boy in her arms. After a bit of conversation they both fell asleep.
Ranma sat down in the chair beside Xian Pu. He heaved a heavy sigh and rested his head against the back of the chair. “Thanks for staying with Akane.”
“You told me to watch over her and I have.” She immediately knew something else was worrying Ranma. “There’s still something bothering you, isn’t there?”
“It’s something Tarou said before he died.” Ranma kept looking to the ceiling. “He said that the martial artists of the Yakuza and the Triad would be able to sense me wherever I go. He’s right. Everyone else can stay under their radar, but me, and eventually Chiko when he grows up, can’t. I’ll never be able to let my guard down again. This will keep on going until I finally make a mistake.” He put his head down in his hands. “I don’t want my son growing up like that. I wanted him to have a more peaceful life than I had.”
“Then he’d never be the martial artist you are.” Xian Pu patted him on the back.
“You’re not helping.” He groaned.
The lavender haired Amazon started rubbing his shoulders. “There may be a solution.”
Ranma looked up at her. “What’s that?”
“We can go home, to my home.”
He looked at her a second. “What?”
She took a deep breath. “The Amazon women would never let anything happen to your son. You would not need to fear either crime syndicate because they would never get passed our gates. Chiko could grow up like you want him to.”
“But you can’t go back to the Amazon village.” He commented.
“I can if…” She hesitated.
“Yes?” He looked into her eyes.
“If you come back as my husband.” She finished.
He smiled, and then went back to concerned again. “What about Akane? I can’t just take her son away. We’d never know how often we’d get to visit and I’d probably lead them straight to her when I did.”
“She can come too!” Xian Pu smiled happily. “Great-Grandmother was always impressed by her. I’m sure she’d make a great Amazon. She’s already a great martial artist and already has a strong child to make the tribe stronger. He’d certainly make an Amazon warrior a good husband.”
Ranma chuckled. “Just nothing arranged, okay? He doesn’t need that.”
“You have to admit, you would never have been half the martial artist you are if you hadn’t had all of us as fiancées.” She ribbed him.
“Okay, but I’m not arranging anything for him.” He stood up and faced Xian Pu. “I guess there’s really only one more thing left to do.”
She looked up at him. “What’s that?”
He got down on one knee and held Xian Pu’s hand. “Xian Pu, would you marry me?” He asked in Mandarin Chinese.
“Yes!” She jumped out of her seat and tackled him to the floor, smothering him with kisses.
“Would you two lovebirds keep it down? You’ll wake up Chiko.”
They both turned to see Akane smiling back at them. Ranma and Xian Pu smiled sheepishly while Akane quietly laughed.